I cleared my CCSA NG AI 156-210.4 on 4th Feb 05 and boy, it was a tough one. Got 96 questions in total and managed to get a pass percent of 86%. Passing is 70%.

The questions covered almost everything from the Checkpoint Official curriculum that I had enrolled for. Besides the Official curriculum, I referred Checkpoint NG AI books from Syngress and Addison Wesley. Besides these, I also went through all the whitepapers on available on the Checkpoint site relevant to CCSA. The Checkpoint NG AI user‘«÷s guide also proved a lot help in understanding concepts that were not covered in the Official curriculum. And not to mention hands on experience on Checkpoint for the last one year. But one thing I would like to tell you is that all the questions in the exam came from the Official curriculum. Read all the other material to understand how the concepts work. Minute details from the official curriculum were presented as questions. Fortunately for me, one friend who had flunked CCSA NG AI had advised me on this. So before giving the exam, make sure you read the official curriculum inside out.

The questions ranged from all the chapters. There were lot on NAT, Authentication, particularly Session Authentication(which is not explained in detail in the official book), Smartview, Smart Defense, Application Intelligence, Licensing, Backups, SIC details, General rule base, Storm Center, etc. All the questions were objective types. In certain instances, two choices will look most relevant to the question, but you will have to decide on experience which one you need to select as the right one. Fill in the blank type questions are no longer present. Think 6 questions included network diagrams where you had to select the right answer. One advantage with Checkpoint exam is that you can mark a question for review at the end, as compared to the Cisco exams, where you don‘«÷t see the question again (unless you plan to give it again, heheheh!). But jokes aside, I was really made to use my knowledge for this exam. And please, don‘«÷t use any dumps. There are other exams that you can clear using dumps, not Checkpoint!

So all the best to all of you who plan to give the 156-210.4 exam in the coming days! Let me know if anyone has any queries regarding the exam and I will be glad to assist.